True Colors: How Spectral Data Helps Printers Large and Small to Hit Their Color Targets

Print companies and converters that use spectrophotometers to monitor and control their printing operations can find gold in those numbers if they do a little data mining, say experts in color measurement techniques.

“When you measure a color with a spectro, the spectral data that you get is like the DNA of that color,” says Brian Ashe, solutions architect for the Pantone Digital Business Unit of X-Rite Inc. in Grand Rapids, Mich. “That data can be a really valuable for anyone in the printing trades because it gives great guidance on things like hitting that color when its run on other substrates and processes, or predicting how the color will look under different lighting conditions.” And thankfully, print managers and shop personnel don’t need to pore over rows and columns of numbers to unravel a measured color’s DNA or try to understand the exact color that a customer wants.